‘Climate Change: A Wake Up Call’ is focus of lecture series

King County Executive Ron Sims will consider the social, economic and health inequities of climate change impacts during the lecture “Shared Prosperity in an Age of Global Warming: King county’s Vision for an Equitable Clean Energy Economy,” Jan. 30 at Pacific Science Center.

Sims is the first speaker in an inaugural science lecture series being launched by the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, based at the University of Washington, in partnership with Pacific Science Center. This year’s series, “Climate Change: A Wake Up Call,” addresses the timely and critical issue of global warming.

The lectures are free for UW faculty, staff and students and $5 for the general public. Sims’ keynote lecture is at 7:30 p.m. in the Eames IMAX Theater.

The other two speakers in the lecture series also will be speaking on the UW campus during their visits.

Konrad Steffen, a University of Colorado professor, will speak on “Sea Level Rise and Ice Sheets,” March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the IMAX Theater. He’s scheduled to speak March 6, at 7:30 p.m., in UW’s Kane Hall Room 210. Steffen will describe the growing contribution of melting ice sheets to sea level rise. The latest results from his expedition to Greenland will be shown, including the first video from water channels inside an ice sheet.

Jonathan Overpeck, a University of Arizona professor, will talk about “Climate Change, Sea Level and Western Drought: Dangerous Anthropogeneic Interference?” April 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the IMAX Theater. The day before, he’ll talk on the UW campus at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall Room 210. Overpeck says many aspects of future global climate change will require mitigation efforts but two major issues are already coming into focus. One is sea level rise coupled with tropical storms of increasing intensity. The other is the chance for more multi-year, even multi-decade, droughts. The recent western drought — already the worst of the instrumental era — could be a harbinger of things to come.

The Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean fosters collaborative, cutting-edge research between the UW and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in climate, ocean and fishery sciences. The lecture series is meant to bring science of local, regional and global significance to the public.